The Humanity
by OhdmanPress901
Summary: Henry Adams went into the bunkers thinking he would wake up to the end of the solar flare. He thought everything would be normal when he woke. That was not the case, it seemed. Rated T, just in case of depressing themes. Note: Zootopia equals Zootropolis. No shipping (mostly)
1. 1- Flare

Red lights pulsated in the barren streets. A klaxon alarm sounded. And, in the sky, the sun shone brighter than any normal sunshine would. The solar flare was beginning.

The planet would be scorched with heat, causing mass destruction and death. All plant life would be killed immediately when hit by the flare, and famine would entail due to the devastated crops. But the worst: the radiation. The particular solar flare had 4x10^24 times more radiation than the average solar flare, certainly enough to cause mass mutation for the unfortunate remaining survivors. We were doomed: like lambs heading to the slaughter.

Scientists had predicted it for decades to come, yet only a few weeks ago the public had been notified: for "the public's overall safety", the government's reason for the delay.

We were doomed: or were? Because, thanks to a particular Mr Goodman, cryogenics was now safe and practical to use, able to pause a human's body for an extensive amount of time, all while preventing aging and mutations. It was genius: and now a complex of bunkers was ready to house a section of humanity, including some plants and animals, to outlive the flare.

Not everyone had been selected to go to the bunkers however… only 45% of the population could go inside the bunker. A lottery had gone round in the mail, telling each person if they were chosen for the bunker: a life or death letter, if you thought of it like that. Luckily, I had been chosen… but my parents, not.

The day when the solar flare would come, I remember my parents outside the bunker entrance, trying to convince the entrance guard the fraud letters they had gave him were real. They so desperately wanted to be with me, and I so. The non-selected had crowded round the bunker door, protesting for their accommodation within the cryo-pods. Soon, they had become violent, trying to punch the many guards surrounding the facility, and doing all they can for their non-existent redemption. I never saw my parents again after the bunker door shut. I still don't know what happened to them.

As I headed down into the facility, the air around me became more chilly with each step. I was heading deep into the ground. After a mile of walking, we entered into what seemed to be a cold storage room. Icicles hanging like bats from the ceiling, a thick cover of frost on nearly everything, and dozens of pods lining the walls were the prominent features of the room. I felt a soldier grab me forcibly into one of the pods, and closing the pod door behind me. I began to feel cold, awfully cold, and just as my temperature dropped to zero, my senses dropped into the darkness of unconsciousness.

As far as I was concerned at the time, the flare was scorching earth to a crisp currently. Yet, what I did not know, that the solar flare had barely missed the planet, only giving a dose of minimal radiation. But that radiation caused a massive change in history… somehow, a mutation from the flare had boosted animal intelligence greatly, and they had managed to become bipedal and civilized. The boosted animals created animal cities based upon the wreckages of human cities, and created their own movies and books inspired by the movies humans had originally created. As for the humans not in the bunkers, they had disappeared from the face of the earth, to somewhere I would find out later. All while I had slept in my bunker, every trace of humanity had gone from the face of the earth.

I am Henry Smith Adams, and this is the story of me and Zootropolis.


	2. 2- Dawn

Uhh…

Nausea overtook my body, making me dizzy and sick. I could feel a horrible light-headed sensation in my head -likely caused by the defrosting process-, so I was in no good state to be woken up. But the machine had other thoughts- tossing me out of it's insides onto the floor! In enough pain already, I yelped when my face hit the floor hard, and my nose bled by a moderate amount. Nice wake up call, cryopods!

When I got up, my knees felt soggier than before. Indeed, I had fallen into a melted puddle of slush, not there before I slept. To my shock, the room was now considerably warmer -by 10 degrees, I estimated- and the cryopods had began to fail in the added heat. I had soon realised I was the first human to awake from the pods, the others still sleeping. Something had gone wrong in the room… but what? I needed to explore the outside, after being woken up like that.

The staircase had fallen into a great state of decay, dripping with wetness and crumbling dangerously. Each step had a likelihood of breaking off, destabilising me and sending me plummeting miles down (adding to my paranoia of heights greatly). To add salt to the wound, no power was being delivered to the lights in the bunker, so all this climbing was now in pitch dark! The power loss must have caused the warmth to the cryo room, I reasoned.

When I finally arrived at the door outside, I heaved a great sigh of relief to finally work out what had happened to Earth while the solar flare had hit it. But the door was heavy to open, and I was weak, pathetic at pushing objects. It took several minutes of pushing to open the darned door, sending me panting frantically near the end of the ordeal

Finally! I burst the door open, creating a loud CLANK when it inevitably moved. I was hoping to find a woodland forest outside the facility, what the land outside was like the day I arrived at the bunker. What I was not expecting was a tropical rainforest, warm and humid, with almost surreal trees, how large they were! A batch of extotic flowers had ground arond the door, and I recognised them as a South American orchid, white and with streaks of bright yellow - but no orchids ever grew in the place I lived!

The weirdest, most fantastical sight of all however, was the bipedal otter staring me in the face like she'd seen a ghost. She had a purple knit cardigan on, was holding a tiny purse to fit her small size, and was now asking me a question in human English. Perfect human english.  
"Who are you? Why did you burst from that metal door? What even are yo-"

Around here, I fainted. 


	3. 3- Flash

Before I talk about what happened to me after I fainted, here is some past info about me.

I was born during the great heat waves of 2017, a bout of extreme temperatures and terrible drought that lasted for the majority of the summer holidays. Because of the withering climate, I was weak, underweight and fragile as a newborn. Luckily, the hospital managed to keep my small body drifting off into oblivion, but now I was the shortest boy at school.

The bullying didn't hurt, eventually. All the mockeries, the behind back remarks, even the punches, they all became nothing in the extent of time. Like a butterfly flapping it's wings and causing a hurricane somewhere else; but in reverse, and the hurricane is of my emotions, and the butterfly is a void of depression, in fact like nothing I just said. My emotions had disappeared completely.

The bullying led to a dark meaningless point of complete depression. I felt pointless: without the thrill of joy, the warmth of sadness, even fear was an emotion I desperately wanted back! After years of this... I snapped! I came home from school in tears, crying for my parents so dearly. All the pain, all the sadness lost in my depression period came out in one huge breakdown. When I finally did find my parents, I explained the bullying, how I had felt, and the depression. They reconciled my emotions, and gave me hope recovering from the depression. Ever since, my parents are what I value most: and now they're gone forever from me. How would I recover?

Back to the chase.  
When I awoke, I felt wet tarmac beneath my head. The sounds of the quiet rainforest had been turned into the murmur of a busy crowd; from the sounds of it, all gathered around me. A sudden flash startled me - the flash of someone's mobile phone (They have phones here?). In response I opened my eyes to see a menagerie of animals looking incredibly confused at me!

A jaguar, dressed in a fine tuxedo and striped tie, was gleaming at me with a dazed expression, attempting to resist his two cubs from trying to pull off the shiny shoes I was wearing, to inspect my footwear. I remembered that the otter I had seen was entirely barefoot: they must have not heard of shoes, I thought. A rabbit (or a hare - I can never tell the difference anyway) was filming me with a orange smartphone, and possibly trying to get his images of me to the news. In closer inspection, the smartphone had a carrot logo on it, a parody of the Apple logo, bite and all! In the distance, a Moose reporter was talking about an "unknown species", and how "it had suddenly burst into the street in front of Mrs Otterton": no guessing who that unknown species was. I was on the news!

When the crowd noticed I was awake, hell broke loose. The crowd turned frantic with questions, and pictures began to flash in the dozen. "Who are you?", "What are you wearing on your paws?", "Are you an extraterrestrial?, "Why have you shaven off your fur completely?". But all fell silent when a young female voice cried from the outside of the crowd.

"Leave that mammal alone!" 


	4. 4- Report

To begin with, the crowd didn't respond. Just kept on babbling about me, like the voice never happened. The voice reappeared, except sterner and more formal.  
"We are members of Precinct 1, and the court can charge any of you with emotional distress to another animal."  
Still no answer. Next to the other voice, a male, more city-boy sounding like voice spoke again. "In other words, if you don't leave the animal alone, you will be fined -and she means it."

The crowd, realising that being fined was maybe not desirable, left swarming around me. The 2 voices which had saved me from burial in the crowd, now walked over me to inspect who I was. "Are you alright? That crowd looked like it was going to swallow you up!"

The 2 figures were… interesting, to say less. The first figure was a grey rabbit, with ears almost a third of her height and the ends tipped with a darker shade of gray. Her eyes were bright purple, and her tail was a fluffy cotton ball, so round and so soft!

The second was a red fox (which looked more orange than red, in fact.) His ears extended far backwards, and his muzzle leaned straight forwards, opposite directions. A… sizable bushy tail flowed from his behind, like a fluffy boa my grandmother always used to wear. And his smile showed a weird combination of smugness and concern simultaneously: I wished I could do that! All were dressed in navy blue police uniform, their chests adorned with a golden badge.

Hold on: weren't foxes supposed to err… do -that- to rabbits? I mean, I know that they are evolved (my crowd experience had forced that knowledge onto me already) but you couldn't write off the biology just yet! But before I could bring up my zoological concerns, they began to escort me somewhere else.

"Now, we know that you want to be left alone, but code 10-56 says that all-", the rabbit reassured me before the fox interrupted with: "Code 10-56 says that all unknown or rare species must be DNA analysed and studied before release." The rabbit seemed pleased at this. "Nick!" The rabbit said happily! "Not many new cadets get to know code use this early! You're doing really well!"

Even more confused than before, I asked them a question: "Who are you, and where am I?"  
"Oh! You're probably new here! I'm Judy Hopps, and this is my partner Nick Wilde. This is Zootropolis! Now can you please just head to the car…"

ZNN News:  
Mrs Otterton, wife of one of the afflicted predators in the Night Howler incident 7 months ago, was walking down Fern Crossing this morning when she reported seeing an unidentified species burst out of a metal door into the street. The figure fainted briefly after seeing the otter, and woke up 10 minutes while a crowd had surrounded it. The figure resembles a tall primate, except with very thin body hair and lacking a tail. The unknown species is being taken into genetic testing, and the metal door it emerged from is to be looked into later today. In other news- 


	5. 5- Urban

The inside of the police car smelled of fresh blueberries and of fancy washing equipment. The seat I was put into was 4 times over my size, and the seat belt was dangerously loose. In fact, I had to hold onto the sat itself to keep myself safe when the car lurched forwards violently! Soon we were driving down the rainforest road, through the humongous trees that dominated this place.

The police car drove onto a busy motorway. Cars waved around us, ranging from tiny cars intended for rodents, to a brown and yellow spotted car that stood 7 metres above the road. Next to the road, treehouses connected to each other via intricate wooden bridges hung by the branches of the vast canopy! Up in the sky, blimps transported airborne cargo, and in the rivers, tourists observed the shore in mini gondolas. But soon, we found ourselves somewhere entirely different.

Buildings made out of snow dotted the skyline. Giant artificial blizzards ravaged the skies, while snow piled on the lustrous urban hills. Neon signs advertised all soughts of animal products: from "Shed-Away!", a product designed to stop shedding fur (Judy joked I needed some, with my lack of fur), to a animal version of Star Trek, "Star Trunk". They did love their puns! The edge of the snow filled district was a industrial zone, producing ice and supplying energy to a seemingly endless factory wall!

Through the wall now! This time, a desert stood in front of us: sand dunes towering over us producing ominous shadows in the bright clear sky. An arab town now we passed into, rich and exotic casinos in the plenty of every street. But the most incredible sight of all was a 100 storey tall palm tree shaped hotel, shining in the sunlight like a enormous flashlight! This was my favourite district in the city: I adore desert cities, as my first memory was visiting Cairo as a 3 year old.

The heart of the city we had finally entered. The architecture was noticeably unique: the grey cuboid blocks were instead shapes of claws and stripes and tails, decorated in bright contrasting colours! Apart from that, the city seemed almost identical to my home city: streets and hotels, including a park were all buildings that used to be in my area. I could live here… right?

But then the car stopped moving. We had arrived: the ZPD was here.

 **P.S I do not take chapter requests involving shipping or POV changes. But if you have an idea I may like, please request! Every bit helps!**


	6. 6- Paper

The inside of the ZPD was immense: Huge beams of sunlight pierced through the glass ceiling, and reflected upon the unnaturally polished floor. The ZPD was brightly decorated with foliage and the ZPD badge became a recurring motif for the grand building. In fact, the floor was so shiny that I had to steer myself so my shoes didn't slip on the frictionless floor.

At the reception desk of the ZPD, sat a heavy cheetah, happily chewing on a donut. If the obese cheetah was ironic, at least the police officer chewing a donut wasn't. "Clawhauser?" Judy asked the receptionist. Immediately, the various merchandise assorting the desk stood out: a pink mug, a snow globe (half leaking from damage), and a collection of celebrity figures all themed about a certain celeb "Gazelle". Currently, Clawhauser was tapping away at a phone game, all while smiling ecstatically at every second.

"Clawhauser!", Judy cried, obviously annoyed for the cheetah's attention. "OH!", Clawhauser cried out in embarrassment. "Uh… sorry about that, just another chubby cheetah cop disrespecting you... look odd. Did you have your fur shaven too much, or did you have a badly went gamble? Those Saharah Square Casinos can get very dangerous very quickly…" He was, like the majority of animals at this point. I felt slightly insulted at this, yet held my emotions together. "It's normal. My name's Henry Adams and I-"  
"No animal pun in your name? Like, none at all?"  
"Uhh… We don't do puns, we humans…"  
"What's a human? Is it a family name, a crime group - Ahah! That's why you're here! A crime group of humans! Right Nick?", Clawhauser signalled to Nick. No reply.

"Currently, we need to head to the Species records. Any directions?" Nick spoke, attempting to end the conversation - we all wanted to move on at this time. Clawhauser pointed to a set of stairs leading downstairs. Soon, we headed off to there. "Is he like that all the time?" I asked Judy about Clawhauser.  
"Don't complain! At least he's friendly, and relatively quick. Those sloths at the DMV…"  
_

The Species department seemed to stretch on forever. 26 giant alphabetical corridors, with the information about billions of different species, from Aardvarks to Zebras. Beginning in the H corridor, we scavenged for any reference to Humanity. Several times we thought we had my species, only for another similarly named species to take the file's place. After what felt like days of searching, we finally gave up on the pointless task. Humans, according to animals, had never happened. I was alone.  
"So what does that mean about Henry Human, Judy?"  
"It means we have a new mystery to solve, Nick."  
"Henry… do you mind holding a interview?"

 **To Teevee: Unfortunately I cannot reply to your review! However, thanks for the kind words Teevee and everyone! You stop me deleting this story for good, and your comments are making the end of Easter Break the best for me! Sorry about not posting yesterday, like I planned to, but TV and Britain's Got Talent got in the way of my author adventures! PS: Teevee, I will post as fast as my little hands can type!**


	7. 7- Review

**FILE 45142 - For Use of ZPD or City Council Member ONLY!**

Date: 16th March 2016

Subject: Henry Smith Adams (Age 17)

Creator of File: Judith Anne Hopps (Precinct 1)

Species Kingdom: Primate

Species: Human (NOTE: Humans are an undiscovered species and not referenced by any official source. Scientists will investigate him soon.)

Purpose of Interview: To gain information about Humans, and where they come from.

Interview Draft

(Interview begins. Subject appears calm, yet shows signs of mild unsettlement.)

 **JUDY:**

Who are you? Like age, location, species most importantly.

 **HENRY:**

How do I put this… (Subject opens arms to convey openness) my name is Henry Smith Adams. I am 17 years old and was born in 2017, 24th of June. I live in the- (Interrupted halfway through sentence)

 **JUDY:**

Sorry to interrupt you, but I am pretty sure that the 24th of June, 2017 hasn't… happened yet? (Subject shows noticeable interest at this)

 **HENRY:**

Wait what? (Concerned in tone). This will be harder to explain than I thought. (Takes deep breath). Soooo… (pause) Where I come from… animals don't behave like you.

 **JUDY:**

Explain what you mean.

 **HENRY:**

As in… (deep breath again) uncivilized. They don't build cities, use tech, or even wear clothes. They walk on all fours, they don't use language, and they… (pause). How squeamish are you? (Subject is partially worried.)

 **JUDY:**

Continue?

 **HENRY:**

(Deep breath) And they even… eat each other. Sorry but that may explain my discomfort with the idea of this city… and you guys [Nick Wilde and Judy Hopps] working together. (NOTE: Subjects first paw experience of savage, pre-civil animals may interest studiers of the Prehistory Zoology field). (Longest pause.)

 **JUDY:**

I see. So, if animals never evolved, why aren't you savage? (Subject becomes sterner.)

 **HENRY:**

Thing is, humans were the only species to become civilized. All the rest stayed feral. We built very similar cities to ours, with trains and shops and phones like you. (Perks up) We became the most populous species on the planet, and on other planets too! Like that Mars mission in 2022! But then… the solar flare came.


	8. 8- Virtual

Things change. Everything changes. Places change. A forest to a city. People change.

Savages to civilians. Fears change. Predators to Prejudice. Heck, even History changes. Animals to Humans.

The point is, the rest of the interview changed a lot about history. Imagine being told that an entire species magically disappeared from the face of the earth and that species still existed, sleeping away in a bunker. And imagine being told that every single piece of fiction and technology had already been invented, just in a different form to today's. Luckily, the rest of the file was tucked away deep inside the ZPD computer systems, hidden from public.

Until Sneaky_Wing, a robin from Londtalon, discovered it.

Sneaky_Wing was just trying to find evidence for his alien conspiracy theory (Utter rubbish, by the way) by hacking into the ZPD files, when he hacked out a mysterious interview from the recesses of the data pits. Expecting an extraterrestrial cover up from the peculiar title "Humans/Interview", he took a sneak peek at it. Instead, he found a lot more than he could chew. A real lot more than he could chew.

"So we slept beneath the ground for millennia, all while you guys evolved and built all over the planet. Humanity became nearly extinct, all I know. But animals weren't the first race, and I am your predecessor."

What did the hacker do? Of course, the internets! R/aliens will be all over this post!

In minutes, the hacker's post rose to the top pages of the internet. Some used it to explain the strange species found in the Zootropolis headlines, others to support their scientologist belief structures. In hours, the hacker's post rose to the top of the news. All news sources covered it, but all said the same thing. The post became national talk. In a day, the government had been told of this, and most animals knew and debated of the credibility of the leakage. It was internet history.

" **Gek092 says:** rly? R u so dumb 2 believe what he says? hes a hakr 4 gods sake"

" **Froggernator says:** Humans? Sounds like a tropical meal from the Pawsific."

" **FoxyBoy73 says:** 5637 people don't like strange alien races that sleep in bunkers!"

And that's why the ZPD needs better hacker protection. Because, if so, a english robin will steal the file, post it on internet forums and cause a mass wave of news coverage. And it inadvertently made my life miserable.

Anyway, back to after the interview.


	9. 9- Must

The room was quiet, yet smelled of must and someone's fur - triggering my asthma.

The coffee was swirling away, half drunk by me.

The lights flickered randomly, temporarily turning off and on.

And Nick and Judy were arguing outside my door.

"This is vital historical information! An entirely new piece of information is now in our-"

"It may sound 'cool' to you, but what if the public blows this out of proportion? Imagine being told that a group of species is frozen over, ready to reawaken any day now! And remember what that guy said? These humans are only used to seeing savage animals!"

"Relax, dumb fox! Henry acted cool around us! It'll be just-"

"But that doesn't mean all of them will be like Henry."

You would've thought the finest officers had better to offer: but nooooooooooooooow!

After all, I expected better than a repurposed holding cell with the ceiling just below my neck. The few things that were in the cell, were at least comforting.

A mug shaped like a paw filled with a warm milk substitute (my mum was a vegan cook, so I was used to the artificial taste).

A lamp glowed warmly, balancing on a toilet seat like a piece of modern art.

A snuggly camping bed, in shades of bold blue to match ZPD uniform.

And a pair of new clothes sitting on the floor: with a extra hole in the trousers.

My non-existent tail was causing a very awkward problem, and I didn't like it at all.

When I woke up, it was with a jerk! Two pairs of furry paws hauled me out of my sleeping position, waking me up violently and unexpectedly. Turning me upright unexpectedly, I took a brief glance at my assaulters, a team of geneticist bears dressed in white lab coats.

Yelling out in shock, I begged them to let me go. Blank stares were the only response I got. Now I could see a pair of syringes being taken out of a suitcase, and being taken towards me. The nearest bear reassured me: "It'll only probably hurt a little bit."

"If it goes well, at least."

Suddenly a pain zapped through my arm, as the syringe dug into my skin. The syringe began sucking out a portion of blood from my circulation. It felt like eons, time ticking like flowing treakle. If I could have screamed, I would have.

Finally the syringe left my sore arm, and I winced in pain. The source for the pain was now clear: the syringe was designed for a bear, not a human. I expected an apology, but got none. The bears left as quickly as they had came in, and I was alone… until!

Nick and Judy came strolling back into the room.

"Hi! So… how did the injection go?"

"Uhh…"

I didn't want to be honest.

"Ooooh-K?"

"Great! Come on, the chief wants to see you!"

What did the chief want with me? I hoped it was friendly… He wasn't.


	10. Authors Note

**Hello. Sorry about no new chapter today, but I would like to address the two kinds of readers of my stories.**

 **If you like my story, thank you! Your support helps me write this, and helps this story get more popular. If you like this, see my other story "Tales from the Far, Far Range", about the thoughts of slimes. It's in the section Slime Rancher.**

 **To the less favourable (Magnum in particular) of my story, thank you for telling me. I will try to post longer chapters, though the format I write my stories in does not support long pieces of writing in . Things I will not add, is Fluff. This story is not about Romance, yet more about Mystery. I will tackle a romance in a future story, yet not this story. I do not mix romance and adventure, and will not gloss over Nick and Judy's "confessed feelings".**

 **I will post more often beginning tomorrow.**

 **P.S I do not post once a week. If you are experiencing that, it is probably a system bug.**


	11. 10- Stare

The car was rolling down the highway, heading to the first lead of our current case. All of us were silent, especially me, attempting to remember what Chief Bogo had said.

The room for Precinct One was large and roomy, obviously made for large mammals. Sometimes I wondered if Judy even managed to get onto the colossal chairs, her short stature being a clear implication.

The room was mostly empty. It was rather quiet for one minute, leaving time for me to relax. Nick was just about to begin whistling before the door slammed open, a fourth figure entering the room.

The figure was large; really large. He was a cape buffalo, blue in fur, and had large horns. To top off his intimidating look, two eyes gave a stare that could burn holes through skin. He, I thought, would be a very good Sports teacher.

"So what poor little mammal has suddenly wandered into Zootropolis, and was so interesting he needed his own case, as if he was the centre of the ZPD all of sudden!" The buffalo boomed, in a heavy british accent. Definitely a good Sports teacher.

"Chief Bogo," Judy began, raising her voice loudly.

"We have reasons to believe that Mr. Henry Adams is a completely new species, not ever recorded in all Animal history."

"Judy Hopps, 20 new species are added to Zoological records each year. Henry Adams is one of them."

"Thing is, his appearance matches no other species in the records. Most new species are related to other, pre recorded species, but humans look nothing like other primates!"

"Fine. But if this 'hoomun', whatever you called it, thinks it can dance into Zootropolis and demand attention to it's puny little bald face, then demand that I take interest in it, the head of the police force, for bloody paw's sake, then this 'hoomun' can go 'hoom'."

Long Pause.

"Nick Piberius Wilde, Judith Anne Hopps, and Henry Smith Adams, head to the Clawwood Zoology Institute, to find information about Henry Smiths Adam's species.

Clawhauser will show you the rest of the case."

Of course now! First it was the Clawwood Zoology Institute, where we would meet a certain Dr. Mich Wane, a expert upon primal zoology. He could provide light on what genus I came from, possibly even finding out where my parents disappeared too.

But just as the rest of the case resurfaced in my mind. Judy and Nick decided to start talking.

"Sorry about the driving, kid. You may not know it, but Judy has a serious case of 'Badditus Drivingus'. Don't worry about it. All bunnies have it-"

"NICK! You sly fox!"

"I'm just trying to lighten the mood. We have been driving for half an hour now, in silence"

"I don't mind being silent actua-", I said before being drowned out by the beep of a radio turning on.

"They see me rollin', they see my hating…" blurted from the radio.

"What's with the song choice?" I asked.

"Finnick." Nick answered.

"Who's… 'Finnick'?"

"Also known as the master hustler, the elephant fox, and even-"

"Toot toot!" Judy cried in excitement. "Sorry. I just really like to say-"

"We know!" Both me and Nick cried out in silent anger.


	12. 11- Stutter

Clawwood Zoology Institute was well hidden. You wouldn't have spotted it between the sand dunes if it wasn't for the road leading up to it's car park. The building was tinted yellow, to camouflage with the sand around it. Lights shone from its many oval windows, though few appeared to be in current use.

We arrived in twilight, the nocturnal animals now roaming the streets like it was day time. The car park was very sparse, and it was clear that few staff actually worked he anymore. But the statue of a zebra and lion shaking hands (paws in animal language) was still in pristine condition, so we knew that someone worked here.

We wandered through the automatic gates, into a well lit, yet duly decorated. The walls were coloured pale, and the carpets grey and dirty with use. The reception desk looked empty, and no staff had been seen yet. Nick ringed the desk bell, hoping for a response.

"Hello? Dr. Mich Wane? Anyone home?"

After waiting for a few minutes, we became inpatient, and began to leave towards the car. Just then, a frail voice cried out, "Y-es?"

Behind us, a timber wolf, had entered the reception. He was wearing a white lab coat, and wore a pair of nerdy glasses. "I sa-a-aw you on th-e security camer-as." The wolf stuttered hastily. I was expecting a wolf to be strong and brave, not a timid stuttering mess.

"Ahh! Is your name Dr. Mich Wane? Our names are Nick Wilde, Judy Hopps and Henry Adams.

"Tha-at is my na-me, yes."

The wolf stumbled closer to examine me. He glanced at me shortly, before smiling in recognition.

"Aren't you tha-at new speci-es that they talk-ed ab-out on the news?"

"Absolutley… yes?"

Mich hurried down to the desk, coming out with a bunch of paper. He then enthusiastically sorted through them, before pulling out a document. Reading through it at lightning pace, he whispered to himself quietly. Suddenly he began marching through the corridors, signalling us to follow him.

"Where are we going?" Judy questioned to Mich.

"You-'ll see."

Around this point, I should've noticed it. Except, I let my brain bypass it, and let the detail sink into my mind. If I had, I would have left. But what was that thing?

The photos of humans on the walls, decorated with messy writing. Pictures of solar flares devastating earth. The cryo-pods in the centre.

Henry Smith Adams, in bold letters in the centre.


	13. 12- Vent

After what seemed like forever, we finally reached the end of the corridor.

"In he-re." Dr. Mich stuttered. He opened a wooden door with his name on, and let us enter his office.

His office; more like his bedroom! Instead of serious office equipment, there were plushies and comic books galore! A single lamp replaced the broken office lights, giving the small nook a warm glow. The carpets smelled of stale grape soda, and felt of dust bunnies and smudges of fur. Honestly, I could sleep here just perfectly.

Mich trotted over to a monitor, buried under a mountain of paperwork. The monitor was curved, partially cracked, yet in good condition. Mich turned on the monitor, and the screen showed a image of a database website, named " ".

"Wha-ts your name, by the way?" Mich enquired.

"Henry Smith Adams."

Before I had finished what I had said, Mich was already typing away at the keyboard. He hit enter, and the monitor loaded up a new entry, called "Henry Smith Adams" on the website.

"Hmm… recent, just today this was added! Ooh, the genome! ATTG…" Mich mumbled to himself while reading the entry about me. "Do yo-u happ-en to be a pri-mate, because this g-enome is v-ery, VERY similar to a chi-mpan-zee! It's almost as if…"

"Humans are 99% chimpanzee."

What? The word 'human' was never released to the public, not even the geneticist bears that syringed me earlier. Not even Sneaky_Wing had published his post yet, so the chance of Mich knowing my species name was an absolute impossibility.

"An-d, to add to the fac-ts, that Humans were the dominant spec-ies on Ear-th."

Another oddity. The interview was completely private, restricted to the ZPD. He could have never known that.

"Or even, tha-t they were disappeared by a sola-r flare two million ye-ars ago."

Dr. Mich Wane did not feel safe any more. Neither did Nick and Judy.

Suddenly, dark shapes began to emerge from the shadows. These now turned out to be other wolf staff, all dressed in lab coats. They all, including Mich, gave one massive sinister grin. Mich began to speak again, this time not timid, nor stuttering.

"Humans. An ancient race two million years ago. They originated from the genus _Homo_ , and became the one sentient race on the planet. They enslaved other, less intelligent animals, and used those animals for food, entertainment, and downright cruelty. They spread and bred all over the planet, destroying the world under their bald under paws. Until a solar flare was about to strike the planet, forcing humanity to hide underground in safety. All while animals evolved past human enslavement.

Until, a particular human by the name of Henry Adams woke up, claiming to have known this time, appears in Zootropolis. Sooner or later, all his other human friends wake up too, and find out animals have taken over the entire planet. So what do they do? They get mad. And they destroy every single, Mammal, Reptile and Avian city on the earth and enslave the entire animal population into submission.

Of course, if we killed all humans, that wouldn't happen."

We all knew what to do. We ran.

Just as we darted out of the room, the guards pounced! Realising we had escaped, they took after us. Darting through the corridors, I had never felt that scared in my entire life. And that includes that time a clown tried to hug me during my friend Darren's 7th birthday party.

"AFTER THEM!" We heard Dr. Mich Wane shout behind us. Thinking we had daunted them, we ran towards the reception. But when two other wolf staff appeared in front of us, we had to make an urgent decision.

Into the storage room we went; into the pitch dark we hid. The storage room was full of crates, plenty to hide behind. But we were being chased by wolves, and wolves were one of the most deadly predators on the planet earth.

We chose an obscure crate at the very back of the room, and lied behind it. The door smacked open, and we heard the stomping of paws echoing the chamber. Despite the loud entrance, the room now descended into an eerie silence. The wolves could be anywhere, even just behind us. I held my breath, for anything could spill our presence.

"Come out little Human, we won't bite…"

Aha! A shiny vent opening stood out to me in the shadows, signalling us to escape through. Taking the opportunity, I began to crawl over towards it.

"Henry! What in sweet cheese crackers are you doing!" Judy mouthed to me.

"We've got no choice!" I mouthed back to Judy.

"Judy…" Nick mouthed to Judy.

"Look above you."

Two furry arms were about to grab Judy's ears.

In a hundred mile dash, we took to the vent. Crawling inside, my claustrophobia spiked to an extreme level, yet I kept on going. Us trio climbed up the vertical shaft, following the moonlight coming in from above. Sooner than later, we were on the roof of the building.

"Get to the car!" Nick yelled!

"Not so hasty, police."

We turned round to see that Dr. Mich and his henchmen had cornered us. Bathed in moonlight, I thought it was the end of us.

"Thought you could escape via vent, well I predicted your every move. After, all, I am a wolf. And wolves... You can't escape me! And even if you do…"

Mich pulled out a small orange object in his paw. In closer inspection, it was a carrot pen. Judy gasped with shock.

"Not my carrot recorder!"

Mich sniggered.

"You left this on my office floor. Seeing that you were recording me with it, and that you were going to use it against me, the only logical thing is to…"

The carrot pen exploded into a mess of circuits, being crushed by Mich's paw. He threw the mangled remains of the pen off into the sands, never to be seen again. Judy, in few words, was flabbergasted.

"... destroy the evidence."

"You'll never commit your species genocide! We'll find a way to expose your plans!" Nick yelled in revenge.

"The only evidence you have is Dann Blackfield! And he's… oh. I shouldn't have said that."

Before we could understand what Mich had just said, Judy pulled us all down the institute's drainpipe. Sliding down the ginormous drainpipe, designed for the Saharah Square's annual downpour in winter, I felt a huge burst of relief! I had cheated death.

When we got to the car park, we drove as fast as we could away from that place.


	14. 13- Odour

The fish shop reeked of ,well, fish.

It was late at midnight, the shops well into their nocturnal shift. My eyes felt droopy, heavy with tiredness and grey with stress. Four hours earlier, we were being chased by wolf guards and thinking it was the end of my Seventeen years on planet Earth.

Now, I was eating undercooked fish fingers covered in a thick coating of salt. All while sipping down my tenth coffee for tonight, no decaf. It was a drastic change, and my body was not liking it -not at all-.

The only animals in the shop, apart from us, were all nocturnal. Of course they were all nocturnal, all day animals were now dreaming in their cosy, size appropriate beds. Used to only seeing nocturnal animals at this time, pretty much all animals were now looking at the table us sat. We were too tired to tell them off.

The shop bell rang; someone new had entered the shop. But that new someone was walking to our table, and soon we had a stranger sitting next to us. This stranger was a woodland badger, with a messy coat of black and white fur strewn upon his muzzle. On his shoulders sat a stained brown trench coat, worn with use, never washed. To be honest, he stank like a public toilet, a thick mouldy odour emanating from his dirty fur. He added a new dimension of disgust to the smell of fresh fish, a foul dimension that nobody wanted. Homelessness looked like him.

"S'cuse me - all the tables are used, and nobody would take me." The badger spoke in a deep pitched Scottish accent.

"It's…" Nick breathed, "...okay. We won't mind…" Nick choked twice. "...you."

Nick's nose looked as if it was about to fall off, because of the smell. I remembered that a fox's smell was far greater than that of a human's, so imagine what he was smelling of the badger.

"Here are some pennies, by the way." Judy offered to the badger.

"You're so kind, young bunny! I get that same amount of money a MONTH!"

"Aww, thank you!" Judy shaked hands (or paws?) with the badger.

"What's your name; our names are Judy Hopps, Nick Wilde and Henry Adams," I asked him.

"Me name's Daniel Woodford Blackfield, but you can just call me Dann Blackfield."

Hold on a second- was that the name Dr. Mich Wane said that could give us the evidence against him? We needed that evidence against Dr. Mich Wane, and before those other humans woke up so Mich could not kill them. And maybe he knew where my parents went too!

"Judy? Nick?"

"What? It better not be about Dann's whiff- you need to give him a chance! He's home-"

"No! Remember that name Dr. Mich Wane would say give the evidence against him? He's that name: Dann Blackfield!"

"Sweet cheese crackers, you're correct! But how do we ask him: kindly?"

A second of thinking came to me. In that time, I had formalized a question. Would he respond to it, I wondered? Ah, why the hell not.

"Daniel?"

"Hmm?" He was half eating a fish finger.

"Do you have any connection with Dr. Mich Wane?"

Year: 1996 Location: 1km under the Rainforest District

 _The bunker was dark and in disrepair. It looked as if it hadn't been seen for millennia: maybe more. Dr. Mich had been walking down this stair for a half hour now, recording every second of this 'thrilling' experience with his old Pawnasonic. After all those years studying humans, he had finally come to discover where they had slept all those years. It was very anticlimactic, walking down the winding metal staircase, hoping to see something interesting._

 _Hey! He could see a doorway down below, and he could hear noises coming from it! He had finally reach his target- the cryopods for humanity._

 _He had to duck his head, as two tall icicles blocked his easy access to the room. Then he faced the freezing cold: bitter, biting and gnawing on his sensitive skin. Then he faced the slippery ground: frost covered the floor, making it easy for one's paws to slip. Then he had to prevent his eyes from popping out of his skull._

 _Humans! One for each cryopod. They looked exactly like how he had predicted them, just without the giant cat ears; not expecting that. They just sat there, in the frozen machines, paused in time, stuck in an eternal snore. Well, not entirely eternal: the cryopods still had twenty years on the clock until they woke up humans. By then the ice would have melted, and the cryopods would have no choice but to wake the Humans. By then, he would be ready to kill them all._

 _One human took Mich's fancy over the rest. He was smaller than the rest of his peers- a child possibly? He looked weak- Mich could see the child's bare ribs through his shirt. Looking over to the pod's countdown timer, Mich saw that the countdown until waking up was a week before everyone else's timer. That boy would be the first to wake up, the first human awake in a million years. Probably a system bug: nothing major, right? He had a name, right?_

 _Sure enough, that name was there, as a pod label. It read:_

 _Henry Smith Adams._


	15. 14- Victorian

Dann was shocked initially. He had covered his past with so much mystery, and had attempted to erase the events of Clawwood from his memory. The only reason he didn't recognise my species on sight was because he was recovering from a Hangover, having spent all his pennies on the Pub two nights before.

After the shock though, Dann was happy to help with our plan. Turns out, Dann Blackfield was a past member of the Clawwood Zoology Institute, a high ranking member of staff. In fact, he was even the co-worker for Dr. Mich Wane himself, and knew a dozen of facts about what Dr. Mich did to discover Humanity.

But Dann needed to go to his house first. He wasn't entirely homeless: just very close to being homeless.

Dann took us through the moonlit streets, between the Downtown alley ways and towards the poorer parts of Zootropolis. What started as well kept, bright and colourful streets slowly evolved to worn down, polluted and ugly pathways. This was the Ugly face of Zootropolis, from a financial perspective, the Cheapest face. The Affordable face.

Near the end of our walk, we were in the dirtiest area of the city. Heavy piles of litter sat outside each house, and the piles looked like they had been there for a month. The houses had smashed windows, scratched doors, missing tiling and damp bricks. But the one house Dann lived was the worst of them all.

A grey, beaten down building built decades before stood in front of us. Five of the Six windows were not even glassed over, and the one that did have glass was shattered to the point of not having any glass at all. The architecture was grim, and dull, more suited for a haunted mansion than a residence. Could our evidence be here?

Expecting to enter via the door, I walked on up to it. Dann had other ideas.

"Not through there! How am I going to get in without a key? Through the window!"

He was not kidding.

Seconds later I was balancing on Nick's front muzzle, hauling myself through the windowpane. When I did get through, I had the pleasure of holding the weight of a fox and rabbit combined. I possibly dislocated one of my fingers during that act.

The room we entered was dark, barely able to see a thing. Just then, Dann stepped on a metal wire, and the lighting of the interior flickered to life; this house had power? The room, in mellow lamp light, was a Victorian room, with grand red wallpaper. The carpet was rich in golden thread, the curtains huge and wide. The interior certainly beat the exterior.

"Good, eh? Animals get fooled into thinking it's one of those slummy shacks found down here in lower Downtown, but the inside, glorious! Too bad the heating doesn't work."

Dann made a good point. The house was chilly and drafty, taking on the temperature of the outside.

Dann lead us through the mahogany door guarding the room, and down a circling staircase to the lower floors. The lower floor was reminiscent of an Amsterdam museum I visited once, but smaller, and much more dark. The only lighting was a wire of many christmas lights strung all over the home.

"In here!" Dann whispered, pointing to a basement door leading to pitch black. Promptly doing as the badger said, us trio went into the deepest part of the house.

Suddenly, a bombardment of lights triggered into my lights! A alarm was yelling into my ears, screaming for me to leave this facility at once. Panicking, I tripped and rolled down the stair, hitting the floor painfully.

"Huh. That's the third time the bunker did that. I am surprised. Sorry about that."

"It's… alright." I wheezed, getting up from my feet. When I did, I nearly fainted.

Thousands upon thousands of photos of humanity lined the walls. They were of all categories, from anatomical models found in textbooks, cartoon images cut from comedic newspapers, even medieval portraits featured in the ensemble of diagrams. In fact so many photos existed in the room, it was hard to see anything else.

Dann stumbled on his two black and white paws to a huge textbook sitting on a desk. The book was labelled: "STUDY OF THE ANCIENT RACE KNOWN AS HUMANS: COMPILED AND DIRECTED BY HARRISON MICH WANE, CO DIRECTOR DANIEL WOODFORD BLACKFIELD. INTERNAL USE OF THE CLAWWOOD ZOOLOGY INSTITUTE ONLY"

"Right bad boy book. Time for little Dann to read you again."


	16. 15- Fear

Yellow, crisp pages greeted us on the first page. The book was tattooed in every kind of stain imaginable, from fingerprints to coffee marks.

"This book was our creation, me and Mich. All of our work is in this book, and boy is it a lot of work. A thousand pages, to be said."

Dann flicked over to a contents page. 7 sections were on it. Introduction, Human Biology, Social Humans, Human Geography, Human Knowledge, Human History and Human and Animals.

"Let's start at the introduction, shall we!"

Dann flicked over to a page detailing a old mine. A 1980's version of Mich could be seen interacting with what appeared to be an old buried car, while underground.

"Me and Mich first knew about you humans during a caving expedition. We were having fun, as we were best friends, spending my birthday in the most fun way possible: crawling through a dirty dank cave."

Nick tried to hold a snigger.

"We went far far deeper than anyone ever said we should. Below the sewers, below the sediments, even deeper than the cavemammal drawings. That's when we found the car.

The car was far older than anything we had ever seen: and didn't look like any design from the time. In the same cave, we found an ancient book containing strange descriptions of creatures not known at the time. On closer inspection, the same creatures appeared as the only sentient animal in the entire book. These creatures, Mich called them, were Humans.

Upon discovery, I wanted the public to know. An entire new era of history for us to explore: the public would be all over it! But Mich had different opinions. He had looked at other books found in the cave, and found horrible, HORRIBLE things. Humans would…"

I held my breath.

"...eat animals."

Judy looked shocked, "What? But Henry would never do that!"

"Well, a long long time ago, they would. Mich was scared that, when the humans woke up, that would be the primary goal for humans: to enslave and consume any animal they could find. Mich, in his fear, created a plan to kill all humans upon awakening, via scare mongering animals into doing so.

I, however, thought humans could be different, and get over their horrible activities of the past. I was convinced humans could change. Mich was not so.

The room fell into a quiet murmur.

Nick broke the silence, "You know Dann, could we, you know, take this?"

"Sure as day!" Dann replied.

"Great! Let's just hope that-" Judy said before getting interrupted.

Was it just me, or did the entire house just shake?


	17. 16- Foot

Silence.

Thud.

Silence.

Thud.

"What was that?" I whispered.

"Jerome." Dann replied.

Thud.

All of a sudden, Dann pulled us up the bunker stairs. We stopped in the main hall, Dann signalling for us to hide.

Thud.

"Why on earth would we have to go up here?" Judy cried out angrily to Dann, confused in her tone.

Thud.

"JUST HIDE!" Dann mouthed to us.

Thud.

"Why would we have to-"

Just then, the wall behind Dann broke up into a cloud of smoke. Thrown back by the shockwave, I coughed in the smoke and gasped to see what had exploded the wall!

Standing in the cloud of dust and plaster, was a humongous African Elephant. And by humongous, I mean 5 and a half metres tall humongous. Grey wrinkled skin painted over his body, wide ears extended all the way to the walls of the room. He wore the same lab equipment we had seen in Dr. Mich's henchmen, and the very same beady eyes of Mich.

"DANN!" The elephant boomed.

"Jerome! Oh, what luck we met! Have you come for midnight lunch?"

"You stink like a full public drain, except worse. Oh, and Mich wants you."

"Mich! We were good friends once. Has he sent you to invite me-"

Dann had us to hide. He was not doing that very well at hiding that we were here.

"The visitors: why are they here?"

"For lunch that's all."

"You haven't taken them in so they could learn about humanity, and discover the reason why humans are going to be killed in two days?"

"Not at all."

"Then Dr. Mich Wane's a liar."

Dann looked behind us, as a last warning for us,

"Nick? Judy? Henry?"

"RUN."

And then Dann got stomped on by a massive elephant foot.


	18. 17- Pain

_Memories._

 _AHH._

 _They're all around me, begging at me, pleading for me to remember them._

 _So I do._

Dann was dead. Or at least close to it.

If we already knew he was dead why did we look at his crumpled body?

Maybe we're just sick people.

However, we needed to escape that elephant, or we'll all look like Dann at dawn!

Fleeing from the wall, me and the gang took to the staircase up! Me and Nick fled to the bedroom, Judy taking to the living room. It was a deadly choice to split up.

Nick shut the door: I hid under the mattress.

"Why did we go upstairs!" I whispered from the bed to Nick.

"What, that elephant is harmless and only wants a hug?"

"The book! If Dann is dead, the book is the only evidence!"

Before Nick could realise what we had just said, the door was grabbed open!

Through it, a beady eye stared: and an arm ready to crush Nick into a fursuit.

"Oh hello! I know about those two animals you are after! They are-"

Nick was already in the paws of Jerome before he finished! Meanwhile, I was trying not to cry out in shock from in the dark! I needed to find Judy, and get that book safe.

 _Lights._

 _Doctors._

 _Pokey objects._

 _Ow._

 _OWWWWWWWWWW._

 _What's that pain?_

 _It hurts real bad._

 _Every part of me hurts._

 _Maybe the memories will help?_

The staircase was in a dire state. Jerome had ripped through the entire upstairs walkway to get to the door.

I hastily balanced on the remaining part of the staircase next to the wall. The storey beneath me and the ground complemented the fact that Jerome was currently tearing through the entire building just to find us two.

The end of the balancing portion found me in the small corridor leading to Judy's hiding place. I quickly dashed through the unlit parts of the corridor, careful to not expose myself in the lamplight.

At the end of the hall, I heard Judy calling up a case. The beep of the phone, the hasty voice answering the call, Judy's surprisingly formal attitude.

There I found here coiled behind a sofa, talking into a metal official looking device.

"JUDY!"

"What? I'm answering a call. Clawhauser, I'll be with you straight away."

"We need that book! It's one of the few evidence we have at the moment, and the best by far."

"Baby Carrots, you're right! Where's Nick?"

"About that…"

 _Hmm._

 _Since when did Nick have a broken leg?_

 _That must be new._

 _Memories…_

Jerome was smarter than I thought.

Or he was a coward.

After all, he did just disappear. He could have been anywhere right now, if not have left. I was hoping for the latter, honestly.

The building was ditched in eerie suspense. The dark became scarier, as if Jerome was in every cranny the building possessed. Judy and I crept throughout the corridor, wary that any step or whisper could lead us away. Grey Ears lurked in the shadows.

The main hall was the same… mostly. Discounting the crushed body of a badger, the scene looked nearly identical. Just then, a fox's whimper lead us to the carpet.

Nick was in shambles. His fur was stained red with wounds, a cut had sliced through his ear, his fur bruised. His leg was twisted in a painful looking reflex angle.

"Jerome…" Nick gasped out of what little air he had.

"He's gone Nick. We're safe." We reassured him.

"Who's that... then."

If it wasn't for Nick, that would have been it. For, just behind us, loomed the still figure of an African elephant.

Dashing over to the bunker entrance, we took behind Jerome's lumbering steps. Judy carried Nick's injured body down the stairs. The bunker: I found the book where we had left it and waited for instinct to tell us what to do next.

Instinct didn't prepare us for Jerome lifting the bunker out of the ground. Nor the fact when he shook it violently, hurting everyone inside. And never in a million years did we expect to pass out just when police arrived at the scene, to wonder where the elephant supposedly chasing us vanished without a trace.

 _Ahh. That's it._

 _Now how long have I been sleeping?_

" _16 hours."_

 _It's better than a millenia._


	19. 19- Limbo

" _Jump Henry!"_

 _I've always had a pet peeve for public water parks. They're sweaty places, crammed to the brim with whining children and angry parents. I did the maths, and worked out there's a chance of 55% that a 10 litre sample of pool water contains the waste of any disgusting individual. It works out to be 75% of contamination in a sample taken from a baby pool._

 _The rides are hideous, at best. I have a red mark from last summer when I scraped my back while in an indoor ride. Hurt like hell (I'm a sceptic), took a reasonable amount of skin off my back. But the worst are the diving boards._

 _You see people getting on the highest one and jumping off like it's no biggie. But even the lowest board has me screaming like a banshee._

 _So when big bully Garry dares me to jump off the highest board for his PS5 account, you already know what my reaction is. Do I need to say it:_

" _No! I already told you, it's too high!"_

" _What? You're a weaky pants?"_

" _No! That's not even a good taunt!"_

" _Shut your little pathetic mouth, and jump off that board!"_

" _And if I don't…"_

" _You lose the right to have an intact jaw."_

 _Fine._

 _Getting up the board, gloats were heard from the below. Sniggers for good measure._

 _The higher I get, the more distorted the height I am becomes. At the top, it seems like a Mount Everest to the floor: a hundred miles on the tip of the board._

 _I was about to jump. Wobbling like crazy: my feet do that whenever I'm high up. I'm sweating like a dog in the desert, my insides boiling with stress._

" _Just do it! After all, you have an audience. Impress them with you grand success: or your worthless fail."_

 _So I jumped._

Dreams.

They exist when you're in them, only to shatter into millions of pieces upon your awakening. Life is like that too. When you are alive, you feel like you exist. But when you are dead: you aren't even able to process that you are dead. Reality shatters upon the darkest hours.

And like a dream, they don't always follow the chronological order underlying beneath them. That is called a flashback. Flashbacks are those chronological holes.

I was stuck in that flashback, repeating the same moment over and over again. My head being forced against the bunker walls, the pain echoing through my bones. Forced to play upon an endless recursion to torture myself into oblivion. If it wasn't for the hospital, I would be in a limbo of memory.


	20. 19- Fame

"It seems that you are awake, Sir,"

It was a high pitched, squeaky voice. And it was below my bed.

My doctor was a small grey mouse. He was well dressed, in white hospital equipment, including a pair of black glasses. He had a name tag that was a third of his overall size reading "Chad Peter Camembert".

"Where's Judy? Where's Nick?" I asked Chad immediately. I had to know where my partners were. I had grown a fond to them, their quirky personality combined with Nick's sarcasm helping nurture my relationship.

"The fox and the hare?"

"She's a rabbit."

"I was never good at Zoology. Aiding people, better. They're over there in beds 203 and 204. Just mind your lower paw injuries."

I had a twisted ankle from when my foot had hit the floor at an angle. Other than that, no big deal.

Hastily, I limped to the beds.

Nick was connected to a blood machine, providing circulation for the puddle of blood he had lost. Judy was doing better, but had a broken arm and needed to use a support to stand up properly. Nick needed to stay longer before his injuries could recover.

Me and Judy talked to the doctor about what we had experienced last night, about the case and Mich and Dann and the book. The book had been found: as a pile of split papers. The ZPD had done their very best to recollect the remains, and the paper was now sitting underneath the ZPD archives, where it would never be touched for a decade or so.

Thing is, it wasn't needed.

Sneaky_Wing (remember him?) had just hacked through the ZPD systems a couple hours ago, and his post was currently on the trending page of the entire internet. People weren't going to notice me now, but in a day, they would swarm the building.

I didn't know it, but the internet was going to make me famous.


	21. 20- Cave

_The dream._

 _Mich wandered down the silent caves of the Nocturnal District, through the meaningless void of dark and stone._

 _Mich was dressed in a proud tuxedo, combined with a velvet tie._

 _Mich was heading somewhere. Where, my mind couldn't reveal._

 _The caves: darkness coated. Yet, as Mich wandered deeper into the bowels of the earth, the darkness became strangely lighter._

 _Mich muttered something under his breath._

 _It sounded like nothing and everything at once. How did that work? It didn't, it was a dream._

 _The light streamed from small bulbs attached to the ceiling, yellow and bright._

 _Mich stumbled down a small corridor cut from the earth, a grand staircase in the earth's crust around him._

 _It went on for an eternity, by the time it was over the dream was nearly over._

 _But for that small time where Mich was at the bottom of the stairs._

 _He was in front of a vault door, made of rusted steel that had seen better days._

 _The button, red and bold._

 _Pressing the button: vault door creaking open._

 _A human figure behind the vaults opened contents._

Judy woke me up.

She was tugging at me to wake me from my slumber, to awaken my senses.

She was mumbling about a wolf, a reception, and the news.

"What on earth are you talking about?"

"The wolf we saw two days ago? He's on TV!"

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

The reception room was busy with sounds of the sipping of coffee, and the conversations of relaxed patients. Judy had pulled me and my limping legs all the way down the hospital just to this room.

On the TV, a white Bengal tiger was interviewing a well dressed timber wolf holding a nervous stutter. No explaining who he was.

"Humans existed millennia ago. All cities built by them: destroyed by the earth's c-rust. Thing is, their creations still e-xist: buried ruins underneath the earth. That's how I found out about them.

Why should we care about humans? Good question. You see, we have found out something that deserves mass attention.

Humans ate animals for pleasure back then."

The room paused into silence.

 **I can't finish this.**

 **It's hard. It's not what I want to write.**

 **You are allowed to finish this as a seperate fanfic, but i won't be making it anymore.**

 **Goodbye.**


End file.
